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Last updated on December 2nd, 2023 at 03:35 am
If you or someone you love have many off-limits or fearful foods that impact their ability to eat enough throughout the day, food chaining can be a great tool.
Food chaining is a helpful tool for:
- Making sure nutrition needs are met
- Creating a peaceful relationship with food
- Reducing social anxiety around food
Knowing how to create a food chain can seem overwhelming with high emotions and multiple food exposures involved. This article walks you through how to identify challenging foods, reduce anxiety around scary foods at the table, and ultimately increase food tolerance.
What Is Food Chaining?
Food chaining is a process of progressive food exposure that combines a food a person likes with a disliked food or fear food.
A food chain will do one or more of the following:
- Manipulate the taste of new food to increase food acceptance
- Manipulate the texture of new food to increase food acceptance
- Experiment with varying temperatures to increase food acceptance
- Manipulate colors of foods to increase acceptance
- Experiment with combination foods versus single food items to increase food acceptance
Food chaining creates links between food profiles. The practice uses sensory measures such as similar textures, colors, smells, or flavors.
Food chaining works by combining one food a person enjoys with one feared food or food of limited tolerance. This will ultimately help to increase the total nutrition consumed in the diet.
Who Can Use Food Chaining?
People that may benefit most from a food chan include:
- People with sensory processing issues may be sensitive to certain tastes or textures.
- Individuals on the autism spectrum
- People with food traumas (allergies, difficulty swallowing, GI issues)
- Those suffering from ARFID (avoidant restrictive food intake disorder), which is sometimes classified as extreme picky eating.
Many people with ARFID find they are constantly thinking about food in an effort to ensure their “safe foods” are available and they won’t be pressured to eat the scary stuff.
Food chaining can also be beneficial for those with eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, or orthorexia.
If someone is using food chaining as part of eating disorder recovery, it’s important they work with an eating disorder dietitian to facilitate a mechanical eating plan suitable for their unique nutrition needs.
Why Should We Food Chain To Increase Acceptance?
For some, the fear of food is so great that it might feel like a plate of spiders is being placed in front of them at every meal.
Extreme food aversions may lead to:
- Weight loss and malnourishment
- Anxiety
- Feelings of shame/guilt
- Clinical signs. of malnourishment (constipation, diarrhea, hair loss, abnormal lab values).
If you or a loved one have very limited food intake, increasing your overall calorie intake is important to prevent malnutrition.
Food chaining can be a good way to increase food tolerance while minimizing the anxiety that comes along with trying new foods.
Steps of Food Chaining For Picky Eaters
Food Chaining Step 1 : Create A Food Hierarchy Chart
To effectively food chain you will need to create a map of what the person with food aversions is already tolerating.
Use a food hierarchy chart to map out tolerated foods and feared foods.
List tolerated foods on a scale of 1-100. The most accepted foods should go on the lower numbers. The most feared foods should go at the higher end of the scale.
Once you create the food hierarchy chart here are some patterns to look for:
- Is there a preferred texture (crunchy, smooth, soft)
- Are there temperature trends
- Does the person prefer savory or sweet foods
- Are liquids or solids preferred
- Are there certain food colors that feel scary where others are tolerated
Looking for flavor/taste/texture similarities in foods is also sometimes known as flavor mapping.
Food Chaining Step 2: Begin Exposure To Feared Foods
You should begin food exposure with foods that feel moderately scary to the person but are not at the top of the list.
During food exposure, it is important to:
- Pair the new food with a safe food
- Make sure the person has appropriate meal support
- Start with. one food at a time
Food Chaining Step 3: Go Slowly
It is unlikely that a person will take a feared food to acceptable food in one day. It may take weeks or even months for a food to be tolerated. Be patient and remain calm.
Tricks for high-anxiety foods include:
- Begin with just putting the food on the plate and touching it with a fork on the first exposure
- Touch the food to the tongue on the second exposure
- Take a small bite of the food on the third exposure
- Take progress as slowly as needed. Adjust the food chain if food is not received well.
Using Flavor Masking In Food Chaining
An excellent way to include a new food item in food chaining is by flavor masking.
For example, certain seasonings or sauces may be a “liked food.” Sauces and seasonings are an easy way to introduce a new texture or flavor for some people.
Familiar sauces and seasonings are especially great for kids to help them feel safe with the new food.
Examples of flavor masking in food chaining include:
- Adding honey mustard to introduce chicken or fish
- Adding your favorite seasoning to new food in the chain (for example cajun, curry, or lemon pepper seasonings)
- Use a favorite marinade for foods
- Anything goes dipping (provide some ketchup, fry sauce or ranch to dip new foods into).
Food Chaining Examples
Once you have distinguished the fear foods from the foods that are tolerated it’s time to start food chaining!
Ice Cream To Strawberries Chain Steps
- Favorite ice cream
- Ice cream with strawberry sauce
- Ice cream with blended strawberries and chunks
- Strawberry jam or applesauce
- Strawberry pieces.
French Fries To Sugar Snap Peas Chain Steps
- French fries
- Potato Chips
- Veggies Sticks or Sphered Potato Chips
- Salted/Seasoned Sautéed or Roasted Snap Peas OR Harvest Snap snacks.
- Fresh sugar snap peas
Apples To Oatmeal Chain Steps
- apple
- Baked Apple
- Baked apple Drizzled with syrup or sweetener
- Oatmeal with apple chunks or applesauce
- Oatmeal with apples, raisins, or another sweetener.
Oatmeal to Store-Bought Muffin Chain Steps
- Oatmeal with fruit or sweetener
- Oat Muffins with fruit
- Store-bought muffin
Chicken Strips To Fish Sticks Chain Steps
- Preferred brand of chicken strips
- Varied chicken strip brands (frozen, Mcdonalds, kfc)
- Baked vs fried chicken
- Fish sticks in favorite prepared style.
Tips For Trying New Food With Food Chaining
- Don’t give up! Sometimes it takes between 10-15 times of being exposed to foods for it to be tolerated.
- Alter the method. If the food chain isn’t tolerated try changing the cooking method, color, or seasoning of the new food.
- Only introduce one new food at a time. Remember, new foods are likely to produce an extreme amount of anxiety.
- Make it fun! Themed meals such as sports-themed or travel destinations may increase the likelihood of trying the food.
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